


Empty Promises

by badenraynesimpsforthane



Category: Batman (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Abuse, PTSD, Red Hood and the Outlaws - Freeform, the descriptions of violence aren't that bad but I don't want to trigger anyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-19 08:55:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29623818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badenraynesimpsforthane/pseuds/badenraynesimpsforthane
Summary: After killing the Joker, Jason doesn't feel quite how he expected...
Comments: 1
Kudos: 31





	Empty Promises

Standing above the Joker's body, bloody crowbar in hand, Jason felt hollow. Every time he had imagined it in his head, starting years ago when he was first resurrected, it was always accompanied by a sense of relief, a warm feeling of revenge wrapping around his shoulders. Now, the world felt cold, no sound except the drip-drop of blood and Jason's ragged exhales.

He stood for a few more moments, staring down at the Joker, whose face was twisted into a gleeful smile, even in death, waiting to feel...something. Anything. But the pit in Jason's stomach grew heavier and heavier. His breath grew louder and heavier as he looked to the side, startled by a sound, and saw Robin laying beside the Joker, the red, black and yellow suit and cape spotted and soaked with blood in places. Bright red blood ran down pale skin into dark hair, the features obscured by the domino mask and the unnatural tilt of the chin, pointed horizontally over Robin's shoulder, facing away from Jason. 

Dropping to his knees, heart beating quicker with terror - how had he not seen Robin, had he accidentally hit him with the crowbar? Was it Tim or Damien? - , Jason reached out with shaking fingers and rolled Robin over, turning his face towards Jason. For a moment, Jason stared, unable to believe his eyes, before standing and backing away quickly, walking backwards until his back hit the wall. Jason kept his eyes on Robin, breath increasing with his heartbeat. Feeling like he couldn’t breathe, Jason pulled off his Red Hood mask and dropped it on the ground, only then catching sight of his blood-soaked gloves. 

The Robin on the ground beside the Joker was Jason himself, face bruised, bloodied and broken almost beyond recognition. Jason could feel his vision tunneling, felt himself floating out of his body towards the ceiling, felt as if he was moving his arms through water as he brought them in front of his face. A memory flashed in front of his eyes, overlaying the scene in front of him almost perfectly: captured and trapped in a cell, only a few hundred miles from the place of his death. Jason had seen himself, as Robin, talked to him, felt his blood soaking into the Red Hood suit as he begged Jason for help. It was a hallucination then, and it was a hallucination now, brought on by the situation that was the mirror image of how he had died; twisted irony. 

As he blinked away the images in front of his eyes, Jason felt the fear rush back. The fear he had felt when the Joker stood above him, raining down blows with the crowbar, smiling and laughing at Jason’s pain. The Joker could no longer harm him, except in his mind, where he would live forever behind Jason’s eyes.

In the moments before Jason’s death, he had called out into the air, heedless of the words of his mother, tied beside him. He had beseeched the air to yield a black-clad angel, the figure of his father. “Batman, where are you? Please, Bruce, save me. Help me, I’m scared. Bruce”- the explosion rocked Jason’s vision and obscured it, filling his mind and body with pain. 

His final breaths were taken from the comparative safety of Batman’s arms, who held Jason’s broken body to his chest as tears mixed with the blood that covered Jason’s body. His eyes dropping closed for the last time in this life, Jason felt fear continue to build, overtaking his body as the sensation faded and, with it, Bruce’s devastated face.


End file.
